“You sure you’re okay with going in here?”

I pause with my hand poised to enter the password into Sylvie’s security system and wish I’d been the one to ask it.  Of course Magda has hardly given me time considering we just arrived and she insisted Jinny ride with her since whoever might be tailing them knows their vehicle and she can hardly be expected to drive and watch to see if they’re being followed. 

Uh huh.  I’d resisted pointing out Andrea Peyton no doubt knows I am being housed at Sylvie’s and I could be switching vehicles at every corner and she’d still know where I’ll end up. 

“Because you know you don’t have to do this, Jin.  We can use the computer at my house.  No way is it not secure.” 

“I’m fine, Mags.  I don’t particularly like this place but I’m good.” 

She sounds patiently annoyed and I wonder how many times Magda has said more or less this same thing on the way over.  And exactly how much of it this time is for my benefit. 

“Okay.  But if you decide different then you tell me, alright?  I don’t have a problem with leaving.”

I roll my eyes as I shove the door open and walk in.  Maybe she should have the line, “Very protective, completely mistrustful, especially loathe H. Cooper Finn” added to her business cards. 

There’s an IM from S’Phear waiting on the lap top.  I accept it and read: 

S’Phearhead: Let me know when you’re back from RL.

I sink down cross-legged on the floor with my back against Sylvie’s black leather sofa and pull the computer towards me on her smoked glass coffee table. 

H._Cooper_Finn:  Hey, dude.  I’m back.  I have two cops with me though. 

Jinny is pacing nervously on the lower level back and forth between the pool table and the pale butterscotch leather sofa, chewing at a non existent thumb nail.  Magda of course has trailed me up the stairs and is standing with her hands on her hips glaring at the computer screen. 

“What the fuck does that mean?” she demands, flinging a hand at the computer screen.  “’I have two cops with me though.’” 

“Pretty self-explanatory, isn’t it?” 

She stands there scowling at me, apparently having some sort of huge mental urge to whack my face into the smoked glass.  I remain unscathed.   She obviously has better self-control skills than I do. 

She lowers her voice and leans forward slightly, her stare intense and ferocious.

“Let me make something clear to you, Finn.  If you are fucking around in any way whatsoever that is harmful or detrimental to Jinny I will personally“

“Magdalena, I told you to back off,” Jinny interrupts, striding up the stairs and dropping onto the arm of the sofa which puts the three of us in a rather lopsided triangular shape which I find oddly appropriate and comforting. 

I resist crossing my eyes and sticking my tongue out at her.  At least until Jinny leans over a little and waves a hand in front of Magda’s face to get her attention and asks, “Are we clear on this?”

Magda sees my mature gesture of triumph over Jinny’s head and rolls her eyes, sighing out, “Yeah.” 

“Good.”  Jinny turns to me.  “Now, what is the ‘I have cops with me though’ about?”

Magda grins and lifts a fist and extends one perfectly polished and manicured third finger behind Jinny’s head.  I ignore her. 

“It’s about how you two probably don’t want to be reading any of these IM’s.”

“Uh huh.” Jinny responds.  “I see.” 

“Well, then you need to move because the idea is for you not to.”  I say and then look down as the IM chimes with S’Phear’s response. 

S’Phearhead:  Oooooooh scary.  And is one of them the notorious Inspector SExstead? 

Oh fuck. 

I clear my throat and peer uneasily up at Jinny’s suddenly red face and watch the color splotch downwards to her white throat and collarbone.   I can feel my own blush flaring so hotly my ears burn and my head buzzes. 

She recovers first and gestures at the computer.  I mentally curse S’Phear and type:

H._Cooper_Finn:  Yes, asshole.  You got anything IMPORTANT to tell me?  I need to use the computer to show them what we’ve got. 

Magda of course has observed our red faces and come around so she can view the screen.  After all I am obviously discussing some dastardly plan to provoke further anxiety and humiliating situations in the life of her partner. 

“H. Cooper Finn,” she reads and then poses as a question, “H. Cooper Finn?” 

“Yep,” I say and know already what’s coming because of course I have dealt with this all my life.  And every single person always thinks they’re the first.  And the most amusing and original. 

“Let me guess,” she says, leaning into the side of the sofa, crossing her arms and obviously quite happy about being handed this opportunity.  “Halitosis.” 

“Oh, shit,” I say mildly, refusing to take the bait.  “You got it first try.  And we’ve never even kissed.  You’re good.  No wonder you’re a cop.”

I smile up at her tranquilly as Jinny guffaws and then tries to stifle her laughter in her hands as Magda’s stony furious face tells me she’d like to help me experience a loss of my civil liberties. 

“Ha ha ha,” she says flatly and I frown and shake my head. 

“No. You had it right the first time.  Although “Ha” was my parent’s second choice.”

The IM chimes and I look down. 

S’Phearhead: Cranky, aren’t we?  You cool with your cop friends seeing all this? 

Um, no.  I turn so I can see them both. 

“Okay, here’s the thing“ I begin and then Jinny suddenly snaps upright from her laughing fit and stares at me with her eyes wide and round. 

“Oh, holy fuck.  S’Phearhead.  Is that S’Phearhead? The S’Phearhead?”

Uh oh.  Too late. 

“Oh shit,” Magda breathes.  “You mean that hacker who accessed NASA and broke into the DODs supposedly unbreachable system?” 

I sigh. 

“Well, yeah…  But he didn’t do anything.  He never does.  He just breaks in to prove he can.” 

“Uh huh,” Magda says and then spins to look at Jinny with her eyebrows arched into her skull and her mouth open, waiting. 

Jinny looks between the two of us, obviously torn and then puts her head to one side appealingly to Magda who transfers her look to me which of course means the brows swoop down in a disagreeable line. 

“You’re sitting here IMing with the hacker who is #1 on everybody’s Wanted list for cyber criminals?”

I heave a harder sigh.  “It’s complicated.  I told you y’all wouldn’t want to be in on this part.”

“Oh no.  No way.”  Magda exclaims.  “We’re out of here.  Come on Jinny.” 

Jinny looks miserably from me to Magda and back again.  “What are you doing, Cooper?”

“She doesn’t know what she’s doing!” Magda says furiously.  “She’s a walking felony, Jin.  Let’s take these disks and see what’s on them at my place.  Then see if we need to donate my computer to the FBI.”

I hold Jinny’s gaze and refuse to drop mine.

“Jinny!” Magda says and pops her on one shoulder with a light back handed slap.  “She’s IMing with a known cyber terrorist.  There’s nothing to figure out here.  Come on.”

“Cooper?” Jinny asks, very quietly and I sigh again and shake my head slightly. 

“I don’t know where he is.  I do know who he is.  And no, I haven’t shared that with the FBI or the CIA.” 

Magda throws her hands up over her ears.  “I didn’t hear anything.  Shut up so I don’t hear anything else.  Let’s go Jinny.” 

Jinny stares at me steadily, unblinking.  “How?”

Magda’s hands are thrown up frantically and she stalks off down the stairs into the other room, cursing in Spanish, hands still up to the sides of her head. 

“Drug case.  Deadly variety of herbal ecstasy and rat poison being sold on line. He contacted me and he provided the information I needed to ID the guy in Germany.  Made lots of arrests on it.  Never told them exactly how I got the guy in Berlin ID’ed.” 

I leave off the part about how I got formally C-1’ed and spent two weeks suspended without pay over it.  And 30 days in jail with eighteen months of probation/community service for refusing a court order to reveal my informant.  The FBI had seized my PC and tried to trace him of course, but he’d erased all evidence of our correspondence with a federal level nine sweep shredder program and even if they’d managed to find some headers they’d have been untraceable since he was too smart to use anything but an anonymous mailer and bogus information to send them.

She nods and chews thoughtfully on a very ragged thumb cuticle.

“Jinny!” Magda yells and she half turns and then looks back at me. 

It’s a very long look and brutally intense.  I make it through without dropping my eyes but I feel slightly dizzy by the time she puts her head forward, the dark hair falling to hide her face as she scrubs at it with her hands. 

“I don’t care about me so much because, face it; I’m already gone.  But I don’t want Magda in trouble over this.” 

I nod and heave the breath I’d been holding as I feel my chest loosen slightly in some kind of relief which I am not going to dwell on at the moment. 

“She won’t be.”

“And how the fuck are we supposed to trust you?” Magda spits heatedly, stomping up into the second level and glaring at me. 

“The same way I have to trust you,” I say evenly. 

She stares at me wrathfully and then turns and glares at Jinny who merely sits there and looks back.  Silent communication flows between them; I recognize a heavy non-verbal argument between partners. 

It ends when Magda rolls her eyes and throws her hands up in an “okay, fine, but you’re crazy!” gesture and then transfers her attention to me. 

“I refuse to jeopardize my job for someone like you, but“ she hisses, jabbing a finger rather dangerously close to my nose, “I’m not trusting you to take care of things for Jinny, so I’m staying.  I don’t want to know or hear anything illegal.” 

I snort.  “Then you need to go deaf, dumb and blind for about five minutes.  And you need to go with her,” I say, sliding my eyes to Jinny’s. 

Jinny nods and shoves herself to her feet, grabbing the smaller woman by the shoulders and grinning down at her. 

“C’mon Magdalena, let’s shoot pool.  You rack, I’ll break.” 

I turn my attention back to S’Phear. 

H._Cooper_Finn:  Ok.  All clear now.  Where are we on the public records thing? 

S’PhearHead: Got programs ready to access 14 of them.  You do the math, Huckleberry.  Remember Windows comes equipped with a handy calculator if you have problems with higher numbers. 

H._Cooper_Finn:  Fuck you.  I’ll have you know I can add and subtract, asshole.  Got anything else for me? I’m going to let Exstead & her partner look at what we found. 

My cursor blinks for a couple of minutes waiting for his response and I’ve just decided he’s finished with the IM when the chime sounds. 

S’PhearHead:  You okay with them knowing about me, Huckleberry?  And the not entirely legal accessing of a home PC?

Not entirely legal my ass.  Totally fucking illegal, more like. 

H._Cooper_Finn:  I have to be.  They have to see it.   Her partner wouldn’t believe me anyway.  

S’PhearHead:  Probably not a good idea to share our public records scheme. 

H._Cooper_Finn: Not a problem.  Wasn’t planning to.   

Again there is a long pause before he responds. 

S’PhearHead: Huckleberry… You fucking Exstead?  

I’m not exceptionally surprised he’s asked; he’s always shown an exorbitant interest in my love life.  It’s the price you pay for obtaining information through a professional voyeur.   I am rather stunned that he’s picked up on it though since I know there aren’t any emails to or from her with any real sexual content and because he knows how deeply I cared for Jase.

For some reason it doesn’t occur to me to lie.

H._Cooper_Finn:  I have.  Not sure about the present tense. 

S’PhearHead: The partner fucking her too?

I blink.  Now that question surprises me. 

I look at the two of them on the lower level where they’re circling Sylvie’s magnificent, yet rather nauseating, peach felt pool table, cue sticks in hand, eyeing one another and grinning, laying bets on the game.  I catch Magda’s deliberately raised voice as she states her preferred odds.

“Winner gets to take Finn to the Department of Justice.  In cuffs and heavy ankle bracelets.” 

Jinny hoots laughter and neatly puts a stripe into a corner pocket.  She looks up at me, winks and drawls, “Well, I like the cuffs part but DOJ’s a little busy.” 

Magda scowls and thrusts a finger in her mouth in a gagging gesture doubling Jinny over in amusement. 

H._Cooper_Finn:  Nah.  Partner’s straight. 

I watch my cursor blink for a second or two before he replies. 

S’Phearhead:  So are you. 

I frown.  Damn, he’s tricky.  This is what I get for IMing with people smarter than me. 
 

---

Apparently both Jinny and Magda fall into that category as well. 

It takes them less than a minute to grasp the enormity of the information on the seven disks.  It had taken me ten times that even with S’Phear explaining it.  Of course S’Phear had insisted on explaining it in really long ass unfamiliar words, probably just to annoy me and feel superior. 

“Holy shit,” is Magda’s comment. 

“Jesus H. Motherfucking Christ,” echoes Jinny in agreement. 

“Yeah,” I put in succinctly. 

At least they verbally react the same way I did. 

It’s Magda of course who wants to know where and how I got the information.  She stares at me as if picturing me in a ski mask, rappelling down the side of a criminal justice building, dressed all in black. 

I hesitate, looking back and forth between the two of them, then shake my head. 

“No, you don’t want to know.  Believe me.”

“I only know one person stupid enough to keep this shit around,” Jinny says slowly, looking up at Magda who plugs both fingers into her ears and sings a verse of “Camptown Ladies” rather loudly, but perfectly on key as Jinny cuts her gaze to mine and mouths, “Massey?” 

I nod. 

She whispers, “Oh fuck.” 

“We have to do something with this,” Magda says, spinning around and trying to not look at me too eagerly as if she might be at all impressed now that I’ve gained information which is going to put Massey and Max Chandler out of commission for ten to twenty. 

“Got that covered,” I tell her. 

“We have to get this to the Captain,” She says to Jinny who nods and points at me. 

“Got that covered,” I say again. 

Magda’s in the grips of some incensed mental activity, pacing back and forth between the glass coffee table and Sylvie’s ten thousand dollar gleaming chrome digital equipment masquerading as a home entertainment center. 

“This changes everything, Jin.  You know that right?” 

Jinny doesn’t even attempt to reply; apparently this is Magda’s usual reaction to frenzied mental exertion.  She seats herself on the sofa to my left and slouches comfortably downwards, propping her legs on the smoked glass table, cocking the heel of one boot on the toe of the other and swaying the top foot lazily and lacing her fingers together behind her head. 

I’m very aware of the warmth of her thigh pressed against my upper left arm.  I ponder the question of whether I should scoot over and give her more room.  It ought to be a simple thing but I can’t seem to make myself actually do it. Probably she doesn’t even realize she’s touching me.  Probably I am the only one who is going ridiculously steamy and warm at the moment.  It’s just a leg against my arm, I remind myself, striving for calm. 

 I busy myself popping the disk out of the drive and snapping the rubber band back around the seven of them, then clear my throat and glance behind me as Magda spins around for another tour of the room, still furiously thinking aloud. 

Jinny’s staring at me and the sheer heat of the look puts a bolt of liquid gold lightening down my backbone that I feel to my toes and in much more interesting places.  I turn back around jerkily, trying to remember how to breathe without choking on it and discover Magda has stopped her frenetic pacing and is glaring down at both of us, angrily.

She swings a finger at us. 

“Uh uh.  No.  None of that.  We don’t have time for it.  You just keep it in your jeans, Jinx.” 

I can feel my scowl growing deeper with every syllable she utters along with a blush which seriously threatens to make me pass out but before I can splutter out some sort of rebuttal or protest Jinny casually responds.

“In my jeans? Mag, I keep it in a drawer.”

It’s probably dangerous to be helpless and hysterical with laughter in the same room with Magda but I can’t stop myself.  I’m still giggling hard when I realize my cell phone is ringing and have to crawl over to my duffel bag to answer it.  Magda somehow resists the urge to kick me in the head as I go by. 

Jinny is also hysterical and has fallen over on the sofa, holding her ribs and occasionally pausing to look at Magda’s red face.  Magda is obviously struggling not to lose the battle of appearing sober and dignified and irate, but finally explodes and bends double, hands on her knees as she howls hysterically. 

I can barely hear the voice on the other end but all it takes is a startled, “Captain McCafferty…” from me for both women to sputter into relative silence.  Jinny pushes herself up swiping at her eyes as Magda straightens somberly.  I can see the color rapidly leaving Jinny’s face as she stares at me. 

“We got home about an hour ago, Sgt.  I got your messages.”  She hesitates and I can hear some tremor of suppressed emotion in her voice and then grasp the reason why when she clears her throat and adds, “I unfortunately got to my mail first.” 

I lean forward, closing my eyes.  Shit. 

I repeat it aloud and on the sofa Jinny whispers “fuck” very quietly and sags back limply, both hands going up over her face. 

McCafferty clears her throat again.

“I assume these photos are what you were going to attempt to intercept.”

“Not intercept exactly,” I keep my voice low.

 I stand and turn and go down the three steps to make it slightly easier on Jinny.  I glance up into the other room and see Magda has gone to the sofa and is kneeling there clasping one of Jinny’s hands, staring at me, her eyes huge. 

McCafferty has said something I’ve missed so I ask her to repeat it. 

 “Are you aware of what these are photographs of, Sergeant?”

I hear it in her voice.  She desperately doesn’t want to believe what she is seeing is real.  She’s hoping I will say it’s a trick, a composite somehow, a computer graphics image which just makes it look like Jinny has seriously compromised herself and her department. 

“I’ve been told what’s in them.  I haven’t seen those particular photos personally, Captain.”

She’s holding them, sorting through them.  I can hear the slide and hiss of the glossy paper in her hands. 

 “Well, they’re definitely damaging.  Can I assume that Jinny is who shared their contents with you?”

“Yes, ma’am.” 

“And how many others have seen these?”

“We don’t know exactly.  We’d like to meet with you and discuss…the whole situation.”

She sighs hard.  “I hope you’re not going to tell me this gets worse, Sgt. Finn?”

“No, ma’am.  Actually there is other information which, although it doesn’t negate those photos does make them rather dull in comparison.” 

She laughs, a rather shaky and startled burst of it.  “Well, that must be some information, Sergeant because these photos are definitely not dull.”

“Yes, ma’am.  Can we come over there and talk with you now?”

“You and Inspector Exstead?” 

“Yes, ma’am.  As soon as possible.  We need access to a computer too.  I’ve got my laptop but it needs to stay here and on line if possible.”

There’s a brief silence and then she sighs and says she does have a PC there and she expects us within an hour. 

“Captain, this needs to be on an unofficial basis for the moment.” 

“I was assuming that.  Otherwise I would have told you to tell Exstead to report to me at the division with her gun and badge in hand.” 

I cringe and close my eyes.  How do they learn that voice?  They all have it. 

“Yes, ma’am,” I say and there’s an immediate click on the other end.  I press the button and hang up also then stand there for a moment before slowly going back up to the sofa. 

Jinny’s sitting up, but looks deathly pale and sick. 

“You going to throw up?” I ask her and she shakes her head, but without a lot of conviction behind it. 

“You going with us?” I ask Magda and she nods and then frowns and pulls back the arm she has around Jinny’s shoulders to look at her watch. 

“Shit.  I’ve got to get Benjamin.”  She hesitates for a moment and then shoves herself to her feet decisively.  “I’ll call someone to pick him up.”  She’s crossed the room and is digging in her bag for her cell phone when Jinny finally manages to speak. 

“It’s okay, Mags.  Cooper can take me.”

Magda stops with the phone at her ear and then lowers it. 

“Jin…” 

Jinny sighs hard and leans forward, putting her face into her hands, rocking herself slightly.  Magda and I exchange what might be the first look not consisting of outright loathing on her part and I lift my shoulders slightly and shake my head.

Her voice is muffled when she speaks, but it’s obvious that she’s crying and struggling hard to get it under control. 

“I can’t stand you seeing them, Magda.  I don’tI don’t think I can handle you hearing it or seeing it or having to watch it happen.  Please.” 

Magda’s silent for a moment and then she crosses the room and sinks to her heels, leaning forward and putting her arm around Jinny’s shoulder and pulling the dark head to her. 

“Hey,” she says and pries a couple of fingers off Jinny’s face, then peers intently at her partner.  “Then I won’t go.  I’ll be a phone call away though.  You need me then you call and I’ll get someone to watch Ben for me. 

“And you need to remember something, Jinny.  It’s not like it was.  It’s still bad, yeah, but you got the disks now. “

“Oh fuck, Magda,” Jinny groans into her hands.  “They don’t change anything!  It doesn’t change the shit in the photographs!”

And that’s when it dawns on me that I haven’t told either of them about the contents of the tape I found in the Sha-Sha’s. 

The one stuck in the jar of jam in the door of Weaver and Legaspi’s fridge. 

The piece of evidence we have that basically does change everything.  

 If I can convince McCafferty to not act on what she’s holding in her hands.